New team Manmohan sworn-in, in what the PM hopes will be the last reshuffle before the 2014 elections.

While the big four ministries -- defence, finance, home, external affairs have been left untouched -- there have been changes in the middle level with eight new faces.

The biggie is that Jairam Ramesh was moved from MoS Environment to a Cabinet minister for Rural Development. Jayanthi Natarajan is the new environment minister.

Scroll down for the the Cabinet shake-up today.

Meanwhile, the other headlines today...   

1. Third convict gets lifer for Nitish Katara killing
2. Indian women are world's most stressed
3. 'US remarks tantamount to interference in Pak'
4. Bodyguard kills Afghan pres brother at home
5. Reliance replies to CAG, refutes charges
6. Former UK PM's son's medical records hacked
7. Fake vaccination ploy used to trap Osama

PM on Gurudas, Jena's absence at the swearing-in ceremony: Have taken the best interest of the country while doing the reshuffle, but the rejig is bound to hurt someone.

I feel it is a balanced Cabinet -- a balance between states and continuity.

The maximum number of ministers belong to Maharashtra at nine, while Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have eight ministers each. There are now eight women ministers in the PM's team after the reshuffle.

Many Tamil Nadu Congress MPs are unhappy over the inclusion of Jayanthi Natarajan.

Congress sources are now saying that the party is unwilling to talk to #Gurudas Kamat, sulking over his new portfolio as MoS Drinking Water and Sanitation. He wants to be a Cabinet minister, but the Congress may actually consider dropping him from the Cabinet if he refuses to comply.  

Rajiv Shukla takes oath as Parliamentary Affairs minister (MoS). He takes over from Bansal. He is also chairman of the media committee of the BCCI. Shukla says he will do his duty and has enough time to discharge responsibilities of the BCCI as well.

Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi seated next to each other, are chatting.

Jayanthi Natarajan, the new environment and forest minister is sworn in. Won't get to hear her tart comments as the Congress spokesperson hereafter. She is MoS Independent charge. 

Kishore Chandra Deo, sworn in as minister Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj. He has been elevated to a Cabinet minister. Deo was a contender for the Speaker's post earlier.

Beni Prasad Verma sworn in as minister of steel.

Singer Robbie Williams' first words were f***> 

The Take That singer has blamed his habit of using abusive language to his early upbringing in a pub and said that one of his 'first words was f***.'

"I was born and raised for the first three years of my life in a pub, "One of my first sentences was, 'Give me a f****** Harvey Wallbanger, please'," he added.

Williams admitted that he had upset pal Jonathan Wilkes and his wife Nicky by teaching a rude word to their 5-year-old son Mickey.

Sushma Swaraj vents on Twitter:

The DMK has refused to provide replacement for Maran and Raja. The annoyance of the major allliance partner puts a question mark on the stability of this government.

Madhya Pradesh has got a raw deal in this reshuffle. Kanti Lal Bhuria and Arun Yadav both have been dropped.

The reshuffle has been done without much thought and consideration.

Just in: A Delhi court has awarded a life term to Sukhdev Pehalwan, the third convict in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.

Pehlwan, the third accused in the nine-year-old Nitish Katara murder case, was last Wednesday found guilty by a trial court, which said that he too had been "present with convicts Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav" at the time of the incident.

The trial against Pehalwan, who was the last remaining accused in the case, took place long after those of Vikas and Vishal Yadav as he had jumped bail and evaded arrest for years. He had been tried separately after his arrest in 2005.

Heads up, Indian women: there's strength in numbers.

A recent study released by the Nielsen Company that examines the consumer and media habits of women in emerging and developed countries has found that women in India are the most stressed and they spend differently.

The report in cnn.com says The Women of Tomorrow Study, which examined 6,500 women across 21 different nations from February through April 2011, found that an overwhelming 87% of Indian women said they felt stressed most of the time, with 82% claiming they had no time to relax.

Indian women are not alone.

Read more

From Pakistan's Dawn: China has pledged its support for close ally Pakistan today, after the United States announced it would suspend $800 million worth of security aid to Islamabad.

"Pakistan is an important country in South Asia. The stability and development of Pakistan is closely connected with the peace and stability of South Asia,' foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

"China has always provided assistance to Pakistan, helping it improve people's livelihood and realise the sustainable development of its economy and society. China will continue to do so in the future.'

CNN's list of Asia's 30 sexiest athletes is out. Of the 30, five are Indians. In no particular order (and hardly surprising) the hotties are:

MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Tania Sachdev (Chess), Sania Mirza (pictured in an over-the-top red satin blouse) and Dipika Pallikal (Squash).

Read

From MK Bhadrakumar's blog...

With a week to go for the US-India strategic dialogue in Delhi, the American side has shed its ambivalence about the implications of Nuclear Supply Group's decision to introduce conditional approach to its 'clean waiver' on transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology and equipments (ENR) to India.

Read more

While we're on US-Pak relations, read this blog by Sebastian Abbot in AP -- Is US military aid to Pakistan in the doldrums? 

Excerpt: The decision to suspend more than one-third of American military aid to Pakistan could end up hurting Washington more than Islamabad as the United States seeks to navigate an end to the Afghanistan war and defeat al-Qaeda, former Pakistani officials and analysts warned yesterday. Read

Adding more fuel to the fractious relationship with the US, Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen's remarks that Pakistan government sanctioned the killing of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad are tantamount to interference in the country's
internal affairs.
"This statement is tantamount to interference in our sovereignty. Pakistan will not allow anyone to interfere in its national affairs," Gilani said, referring to recent
comments of Mullen, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman. 

However, Gilani, during an interview with a TV news channel, said if the US had any proof regarding involvement of Pakistan government or establishment in Shahzad's murder, it should be presented to the independent commission headed by a Supreme Court judge that is probing the incident.

Just in: The Taliban have taken responsibility for the assassination of President Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. Afghan president Hamid Karzai says his brother's assassination reflects the suffering of all Afghan people. 

The assassination came just before the Afghan leader received French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a surprise visit to Afghanistan where he announced that Paris would recall 1,000 soldiers by the end of next year.

Superstition always makes for an interesting read and this one's no different.

A PTI story questions whether the mantra of elevation lies in a lucky room in the Home Ministry.

Three Ministers of State who have occupied it have been subsequently promoted in the last two years.

The 'lucky' room, located on the borderline of the Ministries of Home and Finance in the North Block, was the office of Sriprakash Jaiswal in UPA-I as Minister of State for Home.

In UPA-II, he was first elevated to the rank of Minister of State with independent charge for Coal and early this year a full Cabinet Minister of the same Ministry.

Ajay Maken joined the UPA-II as Minister of State for Home and it was the same room number 127 which was his office. In January 2011, Maken was elevated and made the Minister of State with independent charge for Sports and Youth Affairs.

Interestingly, it was Maken who was instrumental in giving a re-look to the beautiful room, reviving old paintings which adorn the walls and dome of the spacious enclosure.

In January, Gurudas Kamat was made Minister of State for Home and he started functioning out of this very 'special room.'

In today's reshuffle, Kamat has been promoted as Minister of State with Independent charge for Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt says that Gurudas Kamat has told the Congress leadership that he would not like to take part in the swearing-in-ceremony this evening.

Kamat, who was minister of State in the telecommunication ministry has, now, been given independent charge as MOS of Drinking water and sanitation.

Kamat is believed to be unhappy and has told the leadership that he wants to be a Cabinet minister or in the eventuality that it doesn't happen, he will quit as minister. He has said he will not take part in swearing-in ceremony, even as efforts are on to placate him.

What also irks Kamat, who is a senior Congress leader from Mumbai, is that Milind Deora who is complete newbie in politics, has been given a Minister of State rank.

He is the second minister to be openly unhappy after Srikant Jena who got the Statistics and Programme Implementation and MoS Chemicals and Fertilisers. Jena says he will speak to the PM before the induction as he wants a Cabinet rank.  

In the aftermath of the Cabinet reshuffle, the BJP has this to say. Calling the reshuffle a "damp squib" the Opposition insisted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to reassure the nation and dispel the "gloom shadowing the UPA government". 

"It's a futile exercise which inspires none and in no way dispels the gloom shadowing the embattled UPA government," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said after the PM dropped five ministers and inducted 13 new faces into his Council of Ministers.

"This is a wasted exercise which unreservedly attests that we have a dysfunctional government that is destined to sink. Apparently, the Prime Minister has failed to reassure the nation once again," Rudy said.

Here's how the Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half brother was killed.

The New York Times says he was shot dead today by a family bodyguard, according to Karzai family friends who were nearby.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the provincial council chairman for Kandahar Province '" the most powerful person in the province if not all southern Afghanistan '" was killed by Sardar Mohammed, a former bodyguard of his older brother Qayyoum.

The bodyguard was killed almost immediately, according to people close to Ahmed Wali Karzai, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While Ahmed Wali Karzai is in fact, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother -- he's a step removed. Wali Karzai is the younger paternal half-brother of the president.

He is also the representative for the southern Afghanistan region and is an elder of the Popalzai Pashtun tribe and was elected to the Kandahar Provincial Council in 2005.

Karzai formerly lived in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked in a restaurant near Wrigley Field. All that dope from Wiki.

Ahmed Wali Karzai had in fact, survived a number of assassination attempts by Taliban militants and at least two attacks against his office in Kandahar: one in November 2008 and the other in April 2009.

According to him, a total of nine suicide bombers lost their lives trying to kill him.

More on the killing of Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali's assassination today allegedly by his bodyguards. 

It has been alleged by James Risen of the New York Times and that Ahmed Wali Karzai was a prominent figure in the Afghan drug trade, controlling a significant proportion of heroin or opium.

In meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, including a 2006 session with former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald E. Neumann, the CIA's station chief and their British counterparts, American officials have talked about the allegations in hopes that the president might move his brother out of the country, said several people who took part in or were briefed on the talks.

"We thought the concern expressed to Karzai might be enough to get him out of there," one official said.

But President Karzai has resisted, demanding clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing, several officials said. "We don't have the kind of hard, direct evidence that you could take to get a criminal indictment," a White House official said.

Ahmed Wali Karzai constantly dismisses the allegations as politically motivated attacks by longtime rival groups in his country.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, was killed today, an official and a family member confirmed, says the Dawn.com

"I confirm that Ahmad Wali was killed inside his house,' said Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, where Ahmad Wali Karzai lived and was head of the provincial council.

A cousin of Ahmad Wali Karzai, who asked not to be named, also confirmed to Reuters that he had been killed.

Just in: Reliance Industries replies to CAG audit observations; refutes all charges.

Three private companies, Reliance Industries Ltd, Cairn Energy and British Gas had been asked to formally respond to the audit findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its draft report over irregularities in developing some of India's biggest oil and gas fields.

The CAG is holding an exit conference today with the petroleum ministry, which in turn has asked the three private companies to come prepared with their replies. The ministry wrote to the three firms on June 28.

Newsflash: The brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has been wounded in an assassination attempt, says Reuters.

Details soon. 

While on Afghanistan, French president Nicolas Sarkozy is on a surprise visit to Kabul. See our 11:08 am post.

The lady in the limelight, post reshuffle, is of course, Jayanthi Natarajan.

She makes a comeback to the Union Council of Ministers after a gap of nearly 13 years, taking charge of the environment portfolio, earlier held by Jairam Ramesh. 

Ramesh has been elevated with a Cabinet rank and gets the Rural Development portfolio.

Jayanthi (57) is the only woman face from Tamil Nadu in the Congress and a known loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family, but ahead of her is an arduous task -- stepping into the large shoes of high profile and activist minister Jairam Ramesh who has given teeth to the environment ministry which he held as independent charge.

In the much-talked about revamping of his ministry, Singh did not touch the 'big four' -- Finance, Home, Defence and External Affairs -- but shifted M Veerappa Moily from Law to Corporate Affairs and brought Salman Khursheed in his place.

Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi has been elevated to the Cabinet rank and given the Railways portfolio left vacant by Mamata Banerjee after she became West Bengal Chief Minister.

Beni Prasad Verma becomes a Cabinet Minister for Steel, a portfolio he earlier held as Minister of State with Independent charge.

In a substantive yet incomplete exercise, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today dropped seven ministers, inducted V Kishore Chandra Deo and seven other new faces, and elevated three others including Jairam Ramesh from whom Environment and Forests has been taken away.

If you've been following the Cabinet reshuffle, here's what you should also read:

The PM's new team

MoS Rajiv Shukla has friends in all political parties

Dr Singh needs a new team, not a reshuffle

Moving on from the Cabinet reshuffle -- oath of office at 5 pm today -- here's news from Europe.

In the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the 168-year-old institution -- the News of the World -- it now emerges that the medical records disclosing that former UK PM Gordon Brown's infant son had cystic fibrosis were illegally obtained by The Sun newspaper as part of a News International campaign against him and his family.

Read the story in the Telegraph.

The seven ministers who were dropped...

The Prime Minister has fowarded the resignation letters of the following Ministers in the Union Council of Ministers with the recommendation that they may be accepted.

1. Dayanidhi Maran

2. Murli Deora

3. BK Handique

4. Dr. MS Gill

5. Kanti Lal Bhuria

6. A Sai Prathap

7. Arun S Yadav

And finally, the Ministers of State...

Sudip Bandopadhyaya: Health and Family Welfare

Charan Das Mahant: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

Jitendra Singh: Home Affairs

Milind Deora: Communications and Information Technology. This used to be his dad Murli Deora's portfolio. Murli has been dropped from the Cabinet. 

Rajiv Shukla: Parliamentary Affairs.

Then you have the Ministers of State (Independent Charge) 

Srikant Jena: Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers

Jayanthi Natarajan: Environment and Forests

Paban Singh Ghatowar: Development of North Eastern Region

Gurudas Kamat: Drinking Water and Sanitation

Here's the full and final list of changes in the Cabinet.  

Cabinet Ministers. These are without exception, promotions.

V Kishore Chandra Deo: Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj

Beni Prasad Verma: Steel

Dinesh Trivedi: Railways

Jairam Ramesh: Rural Development

Most of the changes have taken place in the Congress party, though the allies haven't been moved around terribly much.

Incidentally, Anand Sharma gets textiles after DMK's Dayanidhi Maran got the boot.

Minister of State Mukul Roy was divested of the Railways portfolio (goes to Trinamool's Dinesh Trivedi), but retains the Shipping ministry.

Incidentally, Kapil Sibal has retained both HRD and telecom portfolios.

V Kishore Chandra Deo from Andhra Pradesh gets Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj portfolio and is now a Cabinet minister.

Rajiv Shukla is MoS Parliamentary Affairs

Gurudas Kamat MoS (Independent): Drinking water and sanitation

Congress chief whip Paban Singh Ghatowar inducted as Minister of State with Independent charge.

Incidentally, Jairam Ramesh, though dropped from the envirnoment ministry has in fact been elevated to the Cabinet rank. He was earlier MoS Independent charge.

Who gets what...

Salman Khurshid is new law minister KC Deo gets tribal affairs.

Milind Deora is MoS Communication, Information and Technology.

Mukul Roy get shipping.

Jitendra Singh: MoS Home Affairs.

Sudip Bandhopadhya is MoS Health and Family Welfare.

Cabinet reshuffle:

Dinesh Trivedi is the new railways minister. Gets a Cabinet rank.

M S Gill, Dayanidhi Maran, Sai Pratap, Arun Yadav dropped.

Vilarao Deshmukh gets Science, Tech and Earth Sciences

Veerappa Moily: Corporate Affairs

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit, reports the bbc.co.uk

Sarkozy is due to visit a military base in Kapisa province, where most of the French troops are based. This is his third visit to Afghanistan since he became the president, reports said.

Last month Mr Sarkozy announced the phased withdrawal of 4,000 French soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

More on Osama.

A CIA analyst who played a lead role in locating Osama bin Laden was placed under protection by the US spy agency this month because of new threat information indicating that he might be targeted by Al Qaeda, say US officials.  

A US official said that the decision was driven by information about possible efforts by Al Qaeda to seek revenge for the May 2 US raid that ended with the death of bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan's garrison town of Abbottabad.

First up, the the legend of Osama bin Laden, that refuses to die.

The CIA apparently ran a fake vaccination programme in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding, to obtain DNA information of his family members in order to determine whether the al-Qaeda chief was in the compound.

The programme was run by a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, whom Pakistani spies have since arrested for his suspected collaboration.

An American official said he remains in custody. The American official said that the doctor managed to temporarily gain access to the compound, but he never saw bin Laden and was not successful in getting DNA samples from any bin Laden family members.

Getting DNA samples from the compound would have allowed the Americans to match those to the samples they already have of bin Laden's family members, and this would have offered evidence of his presence in the compound.

Before launching the high-risk operation against bin Laden, US officials wanted to test DNA samples from people living at the compound with a sample that they had from his sister.

Bin Laden was killed on May 2 in a raid that soured US-Pakistan relations. The US has suspended nearly USD 800 million in military aid to Pakistan following its reluctance to go full throttle in the war on terror.

Good morning. Big day ahead for the UPA ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle this evening. We'll keep you posted, of course. But here's a look at the headlines this morning.  

Little-known outfit claims responsibility for Assam blast (The Hindu)
An improvised explosive device was used to trigger the blast that led to the derailment of the Guwahati-Puri Express in Kamrup district in Assam that left 100 passengers injured, officials said on Monday. Read

Cabinet reshuffle today; top 4 to stay (The Hindu)

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the proposed changes; swearing-in ceremony expected at 5 pm. Read

Cabinet reshuffle: Jairam Ramesh may be promoted , MS Gill likely to be dropped (DNA)
Indications are that the 'Big Four' ministers - finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister AK Antony, home minister P Chidambaram and external affairs minister SM Krishna - would not be affected in the reshuffle. Read

Trouble in DMK: Alagiri, Stalin camps head for showdown (The Times of India)
A showdown between Karunanidhi's two sons M K Alagiri and M K Stalin at a crucial party meeting on July 23 is imminent. Read

Women responsible for foeticide: Mahila Cong chief  (Indian Express)
Woman carrying girl child is sole murderer in foeticide cases, said new president Anita Verma. Read

No aid till Islamabad goes full throttle against terror: US (Indian Express)

The US would continue to hold back its military aid to Pakistan till the time Islamabad goes full throttle in the war against terror, the Pentagon said. Read